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On Wednesday, Brazil’s Senate approved an open skies agreement with the US, which means more flights between the two countries. It also means a business deal between American Airlines and Latam Airlines, respectively the biggest airline in the world and the biggest in Latin America, will be allowed to proceed.Required by the US Department of Transportation, the treaty allows American and Latam to coordinate their schedules and connections. The agreement will also bring an icreased amount of flights between the two countries, with more destinations and routes available....

Update: British Airways has now removed the Euro Traveller and Club Europe part payment with Avios options mentioned below.Back in July, British Airways changed its “Part Payment” program to allow travelers to save between $15 (for 1,250 Avios) and $250 (for 35,000 Avios). This provided a value between 1.20 and 0.71 cents per Avios, respectively. Just a few months later, British Airways has now overhauled the Part Payment program yet again — simultaneously complicating and devaluing the program further....

In the summer of 2016, Boeing’s 737 MAX was merely a fascination for aviation professionals and enthusiasts — this Wednesday, Southwest took the plane mainstream. Late last night, the carrier took Twitter by storm after it posted a simple graphic on the social platform:That’s right! Come 2018, everyone’s favorite Companion Pass carrier will fly to Hawaii. It isn’t yet clear which routes Southwest will fly first, but several will surely originate in California, likely from airports with a significant Southwest presence, like San Diego (SAN), San Jose (SJC) and Santa Ana (SNA)....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.A United flight heading from Beijing (PEK) to Washington, DC (IAD), was forced to declare an emergency and turn around shortly after takeoff due to an issue in the cockpit.UA808, operated by a Boeing 787-8 (registration N28912), was en route to Washington Dulles (IAD) when a “maintenance issue” occurred, after which the pilots diverted back to Beijing and landed the Dreamliner safely....

As winter really begins to set in over most of the country with freezing conditions, it’s time to start considering some sunny destinations where you can earn and use your points. That’s why this week’s Destination of the Week is: Kauai.Kauai is the northernmost and oldest of the Hawaiian Islands. Though it has a ton of hotels, it’s not quite as developed as Oahu or Maui, so it still feels like you can have an authentic Hawaiian experience without hordes of tourists ruining your vacation....

We love a good online shopping offer, and this summer we’ve seen a slew of them (like United’s All Day Recess promo and Aeroplan’s transfer promotion). Continuing that trend, Gilt City has just announced a fantastic deal that has the potential to be very lucrative for many points and miles enthusiasts. Today and tomorrow only, you can earn 15 miles per dollar spent at Gilt City when you go through one of five popular airline shopping portals....

In the commercial pilot workforce, it’s a job seeker’s market.A confluence of factors is creating an all-time high demand for commercial airline pilots, including carriers adding routes and thousands of pilots anticipated to retire in coming years. The result is ultra-competitive airline recruitment from flight programs throughout the US.Commercial US airlines expect to see at least 22,000 pilots reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 by 2026, with about 42% of the active US pilot workforce for the five major US carriers retiring by the end of that year, according to analysis from the Cowen Group....

Last week, TPG Creative Director Adam Daniel Weiss stayed at the The Stanhope in Brussels. The following is his review of his experience at the property.My first night in Brussels was a good one at the Dominican, and as much as I would have liked to have stayed an additional night, it was not available on Hotel Tonight for the following evening. After starting my morning by visiting the beautiful city of Bruges (site of the humorous Colin Farrell movie ‘In Bruges’), I fired up HotelTonight again to look for a new place....

While the most well-known hotel-to-airline transfer program is Marriott Bonvoy, a number of airlines have partnerships with hotel loyalty programs that let you transfer hotel points into airline miles. While it’s rarely a good value, it can be useful for cleaning out hotel points that you can’t use or to top off an airline account if you’re just shy of a great redemption.Back in mid-September, American Airlines launched a 25% bonus when transferring hotel points from four hotel programs to the American Airlines AAdvantage program....

Update: You can no longer purchase Vanilla Reload cards using a credit card and Vanilla Reloads are no longer available in Office Depot.Yesterday TPG contributor Jason Steele took us through the basics of Maximizing Prepaid and Reload Cards for Points and Miles with a series including Maximizing Prepaid and Reloadable Cards for Points and Miles: Reloadable Strengths and Weaknesses, and Maximizing Prepaid / Reloadable and Reload Cards For Points And Miles - Choosing Which Credit Card To Use....

While Hyatt may have decided to sit out of the “free night” promotion circus this time around, it seems like Priority Club, the loyalty program for Intercontinental and Holiday Inn, has decided to fill that void.The Sweet Dilemma promotion offers a choice of double points/ miles or a free stay for every two (like the Hyatt Faster Free Nights prior promotions).Key things to note:1) If you choose free nights, you don’t earn any base points (unlike Hyatt/Starwood free night promos)2) The entire Asia Pacific region is excluded3) You can earn a maximum of 5 nights4) You cannot change promotions during the promotion period....

Today, Qantas unveiled details and seating configurations for its 787-9 Dreamliners, which it plans to phase into the fleet throughout 2018 and 2019. The Australia-based carrier is set to take delivery of its first Dreamliner in 2017, and it hasn’t yet released the routes on which the Dreamliners will fly, but we do know the configuration of each of the aircraft.The Qantas Dreamliner will seat 236 passengers across three cabins — business, premium economy and economy....

Today, Snapchat launched its new location-based feature called Context Cards: a new way to learn more about the Snaps within the app. By swiping up, users can see more — and do more.Snapchat partnered with TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Michelin, Goop, OpenTable, Uber, Lyft, Resy and Bookatable — with more partners presumably coming — to help bring its users useful information. As of October 10, Snapchatters can view whatever info they may need to hail a ride or book a table at a restaurant that appears on Snapchat videos....

Whether bouncy castles were your most highly anticipated treat or the greatest dread at a childhood birthday party, The Big Bounce America has something you can’t really overlook — the largest bouncy castle in the world. This is more than your run-of-the-mill, 15 x 15 bouncy castle. This 10,000 square-foot bounce-house includes an inflatable obstacle race, an inflatable forest, and a massive slide that ends in a ball pit that can accommodate 50....

Last December’s power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) won the airport the dubious honor of having the highest number of canceled departing flights in 2017 across all US airports.Atlanta, which experienced 5,419 cancellations, beat out Chicago’s O’Hare International (ORD) with 3,719 cancellations, with Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) in third place with 3,529 canceled flights. San Francisco International (SFO) and New York’s La Guardia Airport (LGA) rounded out the “Top 5 Worst Airports” list, with 3,299 and 3,018 cancellations, respectively....

The Marriott and Starwood saga continues — this time, though, it’s not a Chinese insurance firm that’s trying to outbid Marriott.Now, the owners of hotels in Chicago and New York are suing Marriott and Starwood on the grounds that the merger would violate exclusivity agreements. Cityfront Hotel Associates Limited Partners, the owner of the Sheraton Grand Chicago, and Dream Team Hotel Associates LLC, which owns the Westin New York at Times Square are suing the two hotel corporations....

Uber was dealt a potentially devastating legal blow on Thursday as it tried to escape its failing operations in Southeast Asia to focus its resources on more profitable markets.Regulators in Singapore issued a provisional decision that would order the ride-hailing company to reverse its merger with former competitor Grab — to which Uber sold the majority of its Southeast Asia operations in March — because it violates competition law. Grab is based in Singapore and is the dominant ride-hailing startup in the region....

It’s a bird, it’s a plane— no, it’s your sushi order flying right to your doorstep. On Wednesday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced plans to make its food delivery service faster by testing drones that will fly takeout orders directly to the customer.As part of a new initiative for commercial drone testing, the US Department of Transportation approved Uber’s plans to test food delivery by drone in San Diego. Uber plans on being able to make food deliveries by drone in under 30 minutes, Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg....

United Airlines has had another incident with a passenger’s pet. After Tuesday’s tragic story about the dog that died after a United flight attendant forced a passenger to put the dog (in its carrier) in an overhead bin, the airline now accidentally flew a Kansas family’s dog to Japan on Tuesday night.Kara Swindle took a United flight from Oregon into Kansas City (MCI) with her 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. The family is in the process of moving from Oregon to Kansas, and they booked their dog to fly in a kennel on another United flight that was also going to Kansas City....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Passengers on board a Royal Air Maroc 737 departing from Frankfurt (FRA) earlier this week had a scary experience while taking off. As you can see in this installment of crazy aviation videos, the 737 rolls down the runway but doesn’t have enough acceleration to take off, so when the nose lifts the tail of the plane almost scrapes the ground....